


Viceroy

by Zy_Khrymzynn



Series: Nathmarc November 2020 [16]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Hawk Moth sort of wins, M/M, Power-boosting artifacts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:14:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27596690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zy_Khrymzynn/pseuds/Zy_Khrymzynn
Summary: NMN day 16: oppositeHawk Moth powers himself up to ludicrous heights.
Relationships: Marc Anciel/Nathaniel Kurtzberg
Series: Nathmarc November 2020 [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1995844
Kudos: 9





	Viceroy

After months of hunting around the world, he’d finally acquired what he wanted. It wasn’t an additional miraculous, instead it was a special artifact known as the Ringsetter of the Viceroy, a special ring for the butterfly miraculous that allowed it to become even stronger. How strong exactly he wasn’t yet sure, but he was currently wearing the delicately designed silvery ring decorated with orange and black wings, with a setting for the small brooch that was the butterfly miraculous. He unclasped the miraculous from it’s usual hiding place and stuck it in the setting, the ring twisting and turning, two metallic wings covering the purple gem in the center. The hum of power he felt from the miraculous usually had turned into a rush of power spreading through him, forcing him to stagger back slightly.

He noticed Nooroo at that point, the Kwami, who was usually a pure lavender had been altered, the wings being much larger than normal and decorated with purple, orange, and black in swirls and patterns within swirls and patterns so intricate he could probably stare at them for hours and days and get more and more from it each time. The rest of the Kwami was not as drastic though, with only black highlights on the lavender.

“Why does everything look so different, Master?” Nooroo asked him. “Why do  _ I  _ look different?”

He showed off the ring to Nooroo. “Each miraculous from the miracle box has a special artifact enhancing their power. I found an artifact called the Ringsetter of the Viceroy, which enhances the powers of the butterfly miraculous.

“Nooroo, viceroy wings rise!” He declared, and Nooroo was sucked into the ring, which folded and expanded outwards until it was made into a full gauntlet. Primarily made of silvery spiky metal with black designs etched around it, and through the cracks in the metal gauntlet, there was a purple and orange glow. He felt power surge through him. What power this ring gave him!

Then the rest of the transformation happened, multicolored hues of light wrapping their way around his entire body.

He didn’t know exactly what his costume looked like, and to be honest he didn’t care. This form he called Viceroy Moth. This was the power he needed. He could sense even the tiniest of emotions now. And what was the weapon he got from the transformation? His cane was replaced with an ornate double-sided axe whose axeheads are designed like butterfly wings. All of these visual changes are well and good, but what he needs is concrete power. He held out his gauntleted left hand, fingers splayed out, and five butterflies came and landed, one on each finger. Perfect.

The white butterflies were energized with orange and purple energy, eventually being mostly black like usual, but glowing with orange and purple.

“Fly, my beautifully terrible akumas, find the people evilized before, and inspire their emotions to transform them!” He called out as four butterflies left the room. He kept the fifth just in case he needed Catalyst again. Maybe this could be the opportunity he needed to finally defeat the heroes.

* * *

A red-haired teen grumbled as he walked along one of the streets of Paris, ignoring the light rain that was falling. He messed up his footing and ended up stepping in a puddle, soaking through his sneaker and sock. At least he hadn’t gotten his other foot soaked.

It was stupid they were having an argument over a stupid comic book. Why was this the thing out of everything that had resulted in them yelling at each other. He’d argued against the introduction of some stupid artifact that made Hawk Moth stronger just because Marc wanted to make new designs for Hawk Moth and new “Cobalt Akumas”, akumas given a darker blue tint. Nobody would believe such nonsense! It was a completely illogical story decision that every person who even casually engages with content would see right through it and deduce it was just an ass-pull.

Plus, he thought they’d already planned out the next story arc, something that would be even more impressive than some asspull artifact. The combining of Hawk Moth and Mayura’s (He wasn’t 100 percent sure that was her name, but it was what most of the media claimed) miraculouses to create Peacock Moth, who not only akumatized someone into a villain, but gave them a powerful vehicle or some other large tool. It was perfectly logical, building on established powers, and even gave a chance for Marc to draw cooler designs than his stupid rehued akumas.

He gripped his pencil tighter, and then paused. Fuck it, they needed to  _ talk _ about this. He turned around. Like hell he’s going to let some stupid argument even get close to having the two of them break up. But the first step he needed to do is get some clean and dry clothes, and then they’ll settle this petty dispute.

But he didn’t notice an orange and purple butterfly flapping into his pencil, imbuing it with dark energy.

_ “Wrongwriter, I am Viceroy Moth. Artistic differences can be so maddening, but that’s only a small issue. You know what it’s like to be wronged by society, be discriminated against for things you can’t control. I’ll grant you the power to change the world with your writing, but in return you will grab Ladybug and Chat Noir’s miraculouses.” _

Right, the comic book can wait. Now it’s time for Wrongwriter to change the world.

He grabbed the laptop that was once his pencil, and typed something quickly.

_ “A desk and comfortable chair appears in front of Wrongwriter.” _

And sure enough, a moving van rolled by not moments later and a desk and office chair rolled out in just the right way to land perfectly in front of him. There were limits to his reality-manipulating powers, but this was going to be enough.

It was easy enough to get access to security cameras, so he could see what was going on. There was currently a fight. Ladybug and Chat Noir were currently engaged in a fight with two akumas he recognized. Inverter and Reflekta, the two heroes barely holding off against the two, but then the camera broke. Damn, that meant that someone was watching the cameras and could tell that they were in use.

No, he looked at the footage again. The camera wasn’t broken, it still worked, it was just showing a blank screen because someone had taped over it with electrical tape.

_ “Whatever is covering the security camera at the intersection of 43rd and DuPierre falls off, giving Wrongwriter an unobtrusive view of the upcoming battle.” _

He waited a couple of seconds, but nothing happened. Damn. His power didn’t work on things that are impossible, so that meant that whatever was attached to the camera, it was something that would never fall off.

What the hell was it then? The only solution was it was something magical. Someone else has access to magic,  _ and _ noticed the camera was active. Who could’ve accomplished such a task? He needed to go to the scene himself, so that his entire view was unobstructed. That way, he could support Inverter and Reflekta. 

The intersection where the battle was taking place wasn’t that far away, and it was easy enough to get there, and it was immediately obvious why he couldn’t get a look with the cameras.

Mainly, the giant black dome around the area where the fight was going to take place.

Who was responsible for this dome? There was only one hero that could’ve possibly created this field, and that honor belonged to Rena Rouge. So had the fox heroine created this on purpose.

Whatever, he needed to get into the fight, because he couldn’t dismiss the illusion with his powers, he’d need to be inside the field in order to see it.

But the problem was that when he entered the field, it was completely dark. There was no “Inside the barrier” it was just complete darkness. Even the bright light coming out of his laptop got sucked up into the darkness. Maybe Inverter had used his inversion power on this area to make it dark? But Chat Noir has night vision, so what’s the whole point here? And more importantly, how does he dismiss it. He needs a light.

But before he could type the necessary information in, the darkness dispersed. Ladybug and Chat Noir were standing victorious, Ladybug having some mechanism over her eyes, colored in the Ladybug pattern. Reflekta had transformed, and she was back to being Juleka again. The same thing had happened to Inverter, having transformed back into Marc. Shit shit shit, this was bad. The heroes had noticed him and there was already a yo-yo flying towards him.

Double shit.

_ “The yo-yo misses its intended target and tightly wraps around the nearby light pole.”  _ He quickly typed, which was enough to buy him some time to escape. He needs another plan. But he’s currently running by the skin of his teeth, the heroes in hot pursuit. How is he supposed to get the miraculouses if he doesn’t have time to prepare?

_ “The two heroes slip on a roof repeatedly until they lose Wrongwriter.” _

That should buy him the time to prepare the next stage of his plans. He ducked inside of a random apartment, slipping into someone’s bedroom. It didn’t sound like anybody was home. Alright, so what is he supposed to do now? He’d tried to make the heroes give up their miraculouses before, but there wasn’t a chance of it happening.

“I suppose teaming up would be a good idea.” A voice spoke up from behind him. He swirled around to see two more akumas, Silencer and one he didn’t recognize, decorated in primarily black, but with dark red and dark blue highlights, and pure white eyes.

“Apologies for the intrusion.” Said Silencer. “This is Twin Noblis. Well, one side of him. The other side is currently involved in fighting Chat Noir, trying to goad the hero into using his cataclysm power. Ladybug has snuck away, probably to detransform, recover, and then retransform.”

“Well I think I can help with that.”

_ “The half of Twin Noblis fighting Chat Noir is able to force the hero into a scenario to use his cataclysm power.”  _ He quickly typed into his laptop.

“There, now that half of Twin Noblis should be able to succeed.” He sat back in his chair. “So what are we doing now?”

“I’ll go and create another trap.” Silencer spoke. “The other half of Twin Noblis will fight Chat Noir.” The other half in question leapt out of the window. “Can you support them?”

“Yeah, I’ve got access to the security cameras, I’ll see if I can find one in the area.”

Silencer nodded. “Alright, I think we’ve got a pretty good plan here."

* * *

“Marc Anciel, I am granting you the Goat Miraculous, which grants the power of Sleep. You are to use this to help and return it when you are done. Do you understand the conditions of accepting the miraculous?” Ladybug asked him.

He nodded, accepting the miracle box that had Ziggy in it. He’d just been akumatized, and apparently he wasn’t the only one. He was one of five that happened at the same time. He’d just told Marinette that Hawk Moth had introduced himself as Viceroy Moth, which he suspects was probably not just a new message statement.

He opened the box to reveal the goat horn earrings, and he put them on. Ziggy flew out. “Hey Marc, are we going to pummel someone into the dirt?”

“Of course! We’ve got some akumas to defeat! Ziggy, ramming time!”

There was a burst of light, and soon he was fully transformed into Black Shepard, the uncreative name he’d picked out. Shepard’s crook in hand. “Alright, let’s do this, Ladybug. Is there going to be anyone else in this fight?”

“Queen Bee, Rena Rouge, and Carapace are on their way to help. I think it’s very likely that Hawk Moth, or Viceroy Moth in this case, might show up in force. Or maybe we’ll get a sentimonster.”

“You don’t think that Mayura is the akuma that is giving Hawk Moth this additional power?” He asked. “I thought this was that akuma.”

“Under the effects of that akuma, he called himself Scarlet Moth, and these akumas look normal, they aren’t made of the red that was the akumas when he was Scarlet Moth. He probably gained an artifact that enhanced his power, similar to what Chat Noir got.”

“Chat Noir got a power upgrade?” He asked. “Since when did that happen?”

“Well more magical artifacts have been cropping up recently, and the Guardian found something that helps out Chat Noir a lot. It was called the Midnight ring, and can create a large area of shadow. I think we’ll be finding more and more of these magic devices soon enough.”

“Maybe you should make more permanent heroes.” He answered. “That might help.”

“It might.” She admitted. One landing noise later, and then he saw Queen Bee (or Chloe) arrive, Rena Rouge and Carapace followed soon after. “Alright, here’s the plan. Black Shepard and Queen Bee can help out Chat fighting the twin akuma, Carapace and Rena Rouge can hunt down Wrongwriter, and I’ll see if I can find out where Silencer is. Does that sound good to everyone?”

There were noises of agreement from everyone. Alright, he was going to team up with Queen Bee and maybe potentially Chat Noir to fight against some akuma that was a set of twins. Cool.

“I don’t know you that well.” Queen Bee started, “But if Ladybug trusts you with a miraculous, then it’s obvious enough that you’re decent and can handle yourself. Just try not to get in the way of my strikes, alright?”

“Of course.” He replied, though slightly gritted teeth. “Let’s take out this bothersome akuma.”

The twin akumas in question had been trying to box Chat Noir into a corner. One had the powers to create these white walls, the other could destroy small zones. Pretty unremarkable powers, but they were fighting well, keeping Chat Noir on his toes.

“So how are we going to handle this, Queen Bee?” He asked.

“Venom.” Queen Bee whispered, before dashing forward. So they were trying an ambush strategy then? Very well, he’ll go along with it. “Somber” He spoke, activating his own power, and a black and white haze slowly started emanating from the top of his crook, and dashing forward, managing to get to the mainly black one as it looked on in shock as it’s twin was paralyzed by Queen Bee, the two falling to the ground.

“Thanks for helping me, guys, I was in quite the place there.” Chat Noir exclaimed. “I haven’t used my power yet, but I was pretty close. Alright, I’ll get rid of the akuma while you two recharge.”

He ran behind an alleyway just as Chat Noir called out his own version of “purifying” akumas, Cat Scratch, which simply destroyed them, but it worked regardless. “Ziggy, resting time.” He spoke, detransforming. Even though he wasn’t a permanent user of the miraculous, he still kept some grass around for him. He grabbed a bunch of it and fed it to Ziggy.

“I have a feeling this might be the closest Hawk Moth has ever gotten to victory.” Ziggy commented between scarfing down grass. “Let’s get fighting, Marc. If Hawk Moth ever reveals himself, we can win this!”

“You’re right!” Marc called out. “Ziggy, Ramming Time!”

* * *

He’d managed to produce a sixth butterfly, although it took great effort. “Are you sure you can do this?” He asked.

“This might be the closest you’ve ever gotten.” Nathalie replied. “You have five powerful akumas out there. Sure there’s only two left, but they’re some of the strongest. And with my power-up, you’ll be able to go toe-to-toe with even the mightiest of heroes. Plus, we’ve repaired the peacock miraculous enough. Duusu, spread by feathers.”

A burst of light later, and Mayura was standing in Nathalie’s place. Perfect.

He released the butterfly he was holding, and it rested into the peacock miraculous.

“Feathered Army, I am Viceroy Moth, I am granting you access to the full depths of power of the peacock miraculous.”

She accepted the transformation, and when the effect was gone, there was very little change. She then threw a feather and it flew into the air. “That feather will teleport the both of us to where it lands.” Feathered Army stated, and a moment later they were on a rooftop.

“It’s time for me to help you.” She grabbed a second feather, imbued it with energy, and had it enter into his gauntlet. “Amok, grant Hawk Moth the full power he needs to gain victory over the heroes.”

* * *

He felt immense power running through the spiked gauntlet, and it swelled and expanded in size, and this time there were crystals embedded into it, glowing a bright blue. There was a second gauntlet on his other hand now, looking like it was made of layers of blue and black cloth. The winged axe was slightly larger, slightly longer, and while it was single-bladed this time, there were two of them, identical in appearance, strapped to his back.

The three of them had been going through the city, looking for the other akumas, when they stumbled onto Wrongwriter. It was pretty much a coincidence, but it did happen.

Chat Noir had spotted them in a room on the other side of the street, the black and white shape unmistakeable. The cat-themed hero extended his baton and smashed the laptop, which then released another oddly-colored akuma, which was quickly cat-scratched away.

Half an hour later, he met up with a  _ huge _ amount of heroes. Not just Ladybug, Rena Rouge, and Carapace, but Roi Singe, Phoenix (Nath was here!), Pegasus, Viperion, Ryuko, and another male hero that looked to have a dog theme.

“So what’s the crowd for, Ladybug?” Chat Noir asked.

“Hawkmoth has been spotted.” Ladybug spoke, gesturing over to Carapace’s shield, where they were watching Hawk Moth. Although he was hardly recognizable as Hawk Moth at this point. There was a massive gauntlet on his left arm that was silvery and studded with blue crystals that brightly glowed, and there were two axes on Hawk Moth’s back. 

“What… is going on with Hawk Moth?” Carapace asked. “He looks like legit ready for battle.”

“He got an upgrade it seems like.” Ladybug spoke. “But that’s why we have everyone here.”

“And it still won’t be enough!” A powerful voice exclaimed.

They all turned around to see Hawk Moth standing there. “I’ll destroy you here and now!” The supervillain declared, unsheathing one of the axes and holding it in the gloved hand, and then raised the gauntlet, and the entire thing started glowing. He’s watched enough movies to know that glowing weapons is a bad thing.

And Carapace got the same idea, because he called out “Shellter” the moment  _ laser beams  _ came out of Hawk Moth’s gauntlet. The Shellter only lasted seconds before it broke and everyone had to scatter to avoid the laser beams. There was like ten of them, how were they on the backpedal like this?

Hawkmoth stopped the laser beams, and then drew his axes. Wasn’t the butterfly miraculous supposed to not be a frontline fighter? What was he supposed to do?

Queen bee tried to sting Hawk Moth, she was smacked aside.

Rena Rouge tried to summon an illusion, Hawk Moth threw his axe, the blade spinning and dismissing the illusion and knocking her off of the roof at the same time,

Carapace threw his shield to defend Rena Rouge, the returning axe knocked him off as well.

The dog hero tried to approach Hawk Moth, he was knocked to the ground. Every attack the heroes attemption they were effortlessly struck down. It kept going on and on until it was only him and Nath (as Phoenix) left. Ladybug and Chat had left to do something, what it was he didn’t know.

“Is this all you have, heroes?” Hawk Moth demanded, levelling his gauntlet. “Pathetic. Ladybug and Chat Noir aren’t even here. The media captured your failure, and they may even capture your secret identities. Fusion power, release!” With that statement, Hawk Moth teleported away.

“What are we even supposed to do now?”


End file.
